The Detroit Pistons got blown out by the Memphis Grizzlies in the second preseason game, which in and of itself, is no reason to be alarmed.
The Pistons are one of the youngest teams in the league, they were shorthanded with Cade Cunningham injured, and just had a rotten night shooting the ball, which is going to happen more than we’d like to believe this year.
Some fans didn’t like it when we called out one ugly trend after the first game, but it reared its head again while Memphis gave the rest of the NBA a blueprint for how to beat the Pistons: Make them shoot.
Memphis showed the rest of the league how to beat the Pistons and Detroit is going to have to change some things up if they don’t want a repeat of this game.
Detroit Pistons: Pack the lane and make them shoot over you
The Memphis Grizzlies spent most of the night in the lane, whether it was Ja Morant blowing by Pistons’ defenders or their defense daring the Pistons to shoot over them.
The Grizzlies more or less sold out on the perimeter, sagging off so far that the Detroit Pistons had wide-open mid-range jumpers all night. The problem was they didn’t make any of them.
Until they do, this is exactly how teams are going to defend the Pistons, as they are going to have to prove they can make those shots and make teams pay for packing the lane.
All night the Pistons were able to get to the mid-range before running into a wall of defenders, forcing them to either pull up for inefficient shots or dish and start over.
Hopefully the return of Cade Cunningham will help this, as he is more capable of getting his own shot and he can actually knock down a 3-pointer unlike many of his teammates.
The Pistons shot just 42 percent from the field and 25 percent from 3-point range, and without a real threat on the perimeter, teams are going to continue dropping defenders and daring the Pistons to shoot over them.
Some nights the Pistons are going to hit them, as they did in the first quarter against the Spurs, but when they don’t, this offense is going to be ugly at times, as the Pistons still don’t have the shooters to take advantage of these types of defenses.
It’s only preseason, but this is going to be something to monitor and why the Detroit Pistons need to add shooters to the restoration next offseason.